Angolan Immigrant Women in Southern Brazil: A Biographical-Theoretical Perspective on the Construction of Belonging

There is a considerable engagement of Angolan women in migratory mobility, representing half of the country's migrant population. In this sense, this presentation is based on a research regarding the migration of Angolan women to the southern of Brazil. The discussion presented results from a combination of Alfred Schütz's phenomenological theory, Fritz Schütze and Gabriele Rosenthal's biographical approach and Norbert Elias's sociological perspective of figuration. The perspective on migration movements cannot only be static but must also consider the dynamism and specificity of each biography, as well as the past, present and how the individual projects themself into the future. From the preliminary analyses of the research, the relationship between migration and the construction of women's belonging in society and social spaces is a theme that is part of the system of relevance of the interviewees. To this end, it is analyzed the changes in the networks of social relations in which the migrants were and are integrated, as well as the changes in the possibilities for action in the society they join. Given that the dynamics between insiders and outsiders are never fixed, it must consider class, gender, ethnicity or status as equally important factors in establishing relationships and groupings. The analysis aims to reconstruct the feelings of belonging and affiliations constituted throughout the biography which means their experience in relation to the various social figures they have experienced through their lives. Also, it is questioned to what extent constructions of belonging and images of self and others changes throughout migration. The discussion presented will be based on the reconstruction of the biographical case of an Angolan immigrant, as some preliminary results of the research that can represent a type of belonging related to mobility.